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I really want no part of this, and I don't think anyone else does either. Beyond morbid curiosity, no one actually wants this product.

I'm not sure what "no one" thinks, but with happy curiosity, I think a product like this could be great.
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Looks like I'm in the minority, but I think it's pretty dang exciting that we have thin membrane display technology that can bend or fold for portability then unfold for an expanded display. A smartphone that can actually fit in my pocket, then open up to become a large phone or ipad mini-type device? I'd be very interested as long as it's durable and opens flat.
 
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No idea why so many are against it, having something the thickness of the current 11 Pro Max when folded that expands into an iPad size display is amazing and I would buy one day one. Candy bar phones have been out for decades and it's getting extremely stale, at least companies are innovating and trying something different.
 
case protection products are going to have awkward solutions ahead. If this all takes off.
 
all of a sudden all the fans who hated folding phones and or tablets hail Apple for its innovation and vow to get one. No matter they said how useless folding devices were.....when made by other companies.
 
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That's the only logic solution when you want to fold the screen on the inside. The real problem on folding devices is maintaining a proper bend radius on slim devices. That leads to the necessity for a retracting support of the display in the bending area. As I developed a solution to that problem myself, I can certainly say, there's an easier approach to this that is much simpler, solves another problem of bendable tablets, but requires the user to "lock in" the unfolded device. If the device doesn't need to be symmetric, it gets even easier.

That said, when we talk about bendable OLED screens there as a lot more options than just folding a screen.

However, I doubt a device with a bendable screen will ever have the feeling of full size solid screen like todays tablets. Last but not least, screen size is overrated. There's scenarios when a larger screen certainly is better, but if screen size was that important, where's my 17" MacBook Air? And that's where I draw my conclusion: It's not the size of the device but the weight and volume that contribute to mobility. Folding does NOT change that.
Now if we take the iPad Pro and fold that ending up at half the length but double the thickness, less battery and a lot of mechanics that can fail, what's the point? That women can fit a 15" tablet in their purse?
 
If you make a phone that has a screen that opens like a book so that you in effect then have a small tablet.
you MUST have a proper full sized screen on the outside, so you can use it just as a phone as normal.
then open it out for the tablet on the inside.
Expecting people to open any device hundreds of times a day just to check on things is just dumb.
 
I have zero interest in a foldable display and if Samsung's foray into this field is any indicator, neither does anybody else.
 
I like the idea, as many have said, of the folding iPad. I can carry an iPad mini in my pocket... If I could unfold it to double it's screen size that would be pretty trick. If they perfected a phone I'd most likely buy it but it's not something I hope for. If it happens it happens....
 
I'd would have rather have self-folding clothes especially out of the dryer!

A few years ago I saw a video of someone's experimental clothes folding robot in Japan. It wasn't a machine that had to be fed, but an actual robotic piece with two arms. It was just a proof of concept out of a robotics lab. It worked, but barely. It was able to fish an article of clothing out of the dryer, line it up, and fold it into a neat square, but it was SO slow!
 
Apple are doing things the right way.

Apple: Innovate - test - revise - test - protect - release.

Samsung: Innovate - release - test - revise.
 
I really want no part of this, and I don't think anyone else does either. Beyond morbid curiosity, no one actually wants this product.

A similar comment has been posted about virtually every single successful Apple product introduced in the past 14 years, quite prominently with the iPad...

Yours is just as wrong as those were.
 
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A lot of these patents never come to Fruition. They are merely ‘pre-planning’ for something that has the potential to be a product, but isn’t a guarantee for anything. We’ve seen this many times over with past concepts from Apple.
 
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There are only so many ways a folding mechanism can be engineered. It would not surprise me if Apple has produced this patent to prevent other companies getting in on the folding device market, stopping them with 'they have infringed on our patent'.
 
Beyond the issues of folding screens in general, there seems to be very little appreciation here for this particular clever engineering solution to the creasing problem.
 
There are only so many ways a folding mechanism can be engineered. It would not surprise me if Apple has produced this patent to prevent other companies getting in on the folding device market, stopping them with 'they have infringed on our patent'.

Or maybe they are working on a new member of the iPad family? It makes total sense and they probably have been playing around with dual screen concepts for years.
 
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